The Nintendo 3DS has attracted the most preorders ever for a video game console on online retailer Amazon UK, the company said Thursday.

"It's unusual for a handheld console to attract this amount of excitement in the run up to launch, such high levels of interest are normally reserved for the play-at-home hardware like the ground-breaking Nintendo Wii and last year’s Microsoft Kinect," said Amazon UK director of video games Chris Poad.

"Nintendo 3DS is launching at a time when interest in all things 3D is incredibly high and with the promise of real 3D graphics without glasses, it’s a real breakthrough in handheld video game entertainment," he added

The 3DS launches in the UK on March 25 and will be priced at £187.00 ($301). The device launches in North America on March 27 and already released in Japan in late February.

Amazon UK did not reveal hard preorder figures, but said the 3DS achieved 20 percent more preorders than Sony's PlayStation 3, 56 percent more than the Nintendo Wii and 255 percent more than the Nintendo DSi.